Changing Flames
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Report: fatigue, functions of body regular. No other severe conditions found.
Her green eyes traced the paper over and over for the fourth time. In the distance the sun announced the end of the day, red rays of the afternoon traced her skin, as if she was being consumed by fire. As if the heavy endurance of her own heart wasn't enough she clenched her eyes shut.
He had enough time to distance himself from his friends, but not from her.
She stood in the Nara compounds. Caged in a room full of bonsai trees. The circles on her eyes had disturbed the Nara when she had arrived unannounced. Sneaking in the cage Shikamaru has created for himself. She shook her head when he reproached her that she was in need of sleep.
Ironic. How Shikamaru's eyes were traced with deeper black circles from lack of sleep. The so called laziest ninja of Konoha had lost his tittle for the last two months.
She had hit him more than once. Never regretted it, because at least that way he showed a trace of life on his part. The echoes of his crying had turned into a tragic daily endurance that Temari had to hear as she sat on the open window.
He kept pacing back and forth. Making sure all the trees were in perfect condition. None of them were supposed to be broken or with any trace of dead leafs. That meant he had failed to take care of them. Temari saw how his body succumbed to agony's embrace.
Today he paced less than usual. Less dark circles. This time it was her who was being pushed to do something that would risk her own heart. And break Shikamaru's even more.
She turned her eyes back at the document. Her orbs looking at the door of the room. The damn cursed door that she could close or open.
She clenched her teeth in anger. Two burning flames shouldn't never been brought back together. At least she had thought that one of the flames had died back four moths ago in the war. Her cheeks burned, contaminated with sadness. She could bring hell itself back to Nara or heaven. It all depended on Shikamaru's heart.
And the decision of opening the door to hell or heaven resided on her. She threw the paper. It landed on Shikamaru's foot.
"...what is this? A medical report?" Her heart felt thorns. He's stupid head wasn't on the right place. And her stupid mistake had landed straight at the Nara's feet. He started reading.
"Don't!" She grunted. Glancing at the door and the document back and forth. Her eyes started to glitter. Her pathetic tears finally leaving her eyes. Shikamaru blinked, didn't bother to read the name of whose report it belong to.
"Full recovery..." he finished reading. "Successful recuperation."
He turned the paper over and over. He blinked and ignored it, placing it safely on the table. Turning back to the bonsai trees.
He never read the name. And that made Temari's heart clench, her chest burning.
"Shikamaru..." her voice echoed in the room. Her voice captured Shikamaru. "Open the door..:"
Her decision was intuitive.
"What for?" He blinked. She placed her hands on her chest. "You need air?"
"Just do it!"
Shikamaru's feet left her. Tracing a path that had no turning back. His naked feet leaving a short distance, but to her it was as if he would never turn her way. And she knew damn well why. He walked in a lazy pace, never expected the nightmares that would greet him as soon as he opened the door. The living nightmare that had stolen his own sanity. His heaven turning into a consumer of his soul.
Her major regret was that before the door was opened he had let a small chuckle. He had been recovering, and now there was a chance she had stole that peace.
"Shika-" she tried to stop him. Tried to call him to come to her. Why did she even brought his past hell back into his present? But, as much as she dared; she had to recognize that the once dead flame that had let Shikamaru abandoned in shadows had returned. Returned in the present. To the same She and Shikamaru belonged to.
In her own selfishness she didn't accepted the fact that her heart was drunkenly driven by her affection towards the Nara. She didn't recognized her own flame. Her voice wouldn't reach him anymore.
The Nara had already been called by the resuscitated flame. She was left in ashes, her flame echoing in a weak burning murmur.
He opened the door. She stood rigid on the wooden floor. Watching. Gazing how Shikamaru collided with the living flesh of another body that had waited on the other side of the door.
He collapsed. Knelt and gazed in a trance, his flame burning back to live.
The man stepped inside. She had lost.
"Neji..."
They reunited. Not as the old flames they once were. Because, as much as she wanted to desire it. They had changed and still craved one another.
The Hyūga had came back. His voice captured the Nara. His eyes tracing all the Hyūga's features, succumbed to tears. The tears she wanted to bring out, but couldn't.
Tears of relief, his voice broke into a chant of the Hyūga's name. The Hyūga caged him, captured once again in the present. She had open the door of heaven to Shikamaru, but the door of hell to herself.
She glanced at the paper where the bonsai trees had been forgotten. The report of Hyūga's sudden appearance and sudden resuscitation had fell into her hands.
Shikamaru's laughter escaped. The sound she had yearned for those months had came back to the present. Her eyes traced him.
His husky voice escaped in a song dedicated to Neji. Her heavy heart was left on peace. He was back on track. Maybe not because she had done it, but because she had the chance of bringing it back with the Hyūga. She was happy enough. At the moment.
They never noticed her leaving. Never noticed she saw how they connected once again with new kisses.
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Thanks for reading. Is a short story based on "Roots" by Temari's point of view. Mostly refers to the past. Thanks!